“All of You,” a sales title premiering in Toronto Sept. 7, features a test many watchers might afraid away from taking.
In the story, set in the proximate-future, science has conceived a method to rerepair one’s real soulmate — if one is willing to get the test. An unforeseeed answer comes between Simon (Brett Gelderlystein) and Laura (Imogen Poots), and their encounterings over the years after Laura discovers who her selectimal partner repartner is (hint: not Simon, whom she cherishs despite herself) get on an increasing, hurtful intensity.
“We wanted to tell a relationship story,” says William Bridges, the film’s honestor and, with Gelderlystein, its co-authorr. “And we establish that by changing one leang in our world, it apvalidateed us to unlock people’s perception of what real cherish is, and that was very wealthy territory for a cherish story.”
Bridges, an Emmy-triumphner for “Binestablishage Mirror” (his two episodes include the fan preferite “USS Calenumerateer”), originpartner made “All of You” with Gelderlystein as a low film after promoteing the idea while converseing their admireive relationships. “At the time, we didn’t have funding for anyleang,” Bridges says. “We wrote it for ourselves, to get to the end and see if there’s a movie in it.”
There was — and, in the intervening years, both men guided nurtureer upstriumphgs (Gelderlystein is now a two-time Emmy triumphner for “Ted Lasso,” and co-produced Apple’s TV+’s comedy “Shrinking”). “I could cry,” Gelderlystein says. “It’s enjoy my baby, this one — what we’ve dreamt of doing for 10 years. I unfrequently say this — I’m repartner haughty of it.”
Part of the film’s signature is its tendency to leap forward in its story without onscreen titles indicating how much time has passed; watchers must engage context to rerepair where Simon and Laura are, and what they unkind to one another at each new milestone, moments that tend to be proestablishly transport inant for them both. “It helps the story have pace,” Poots says. “There’s someleang fascinating about seeing the high-drama moments — moments where it experiences more stylized.”
“Your enhappinessment is laboring out how they rerescheduleed to each other,” Bridges says. “But for the actors, it’s a huge ask — it spans 15, 20 years.”
Gelderlystein says with a chuckle: “Our schedule was set by my endured length. We begined with a huge endured, and then we’d shave it a bit — the difficultest part was holding endured continuity.”
Keeping the timeline straight while shooting out of sequence was a dispute — but the film was buoyed by an esprit de corps. “It was a very rapid shoot,” says Poots, understandn for roles in films enjoy “French Exit” and “The Father.” “But the beauty of this job sometimes is incredibly guerrilla — grabbing shots around London streets at rush hour. But that’s the thrill.”
“All of You” tells an intimate story inflected by technology, but Bridges is rapid to elucidate that it’s not science fantasy: “We equitable want to tell this definite cherish story, and only touch on how the world has alterd thraw [the characters’] perspective.” The shift in culture and tech is a helping carry outer; Simon and Laura — and what exists between them — are the stars.
Poots contrasts the film to movies from the 1970s and 1980s that she’s returned to thrawout her life, enjoy “Heartburn” and “Falling in Love.” “They taught me what I’m made of and what’s transport inant in life,” she says. “I hope this unkinds someleang to people.” (As an aside, she jokes: “I hope it doesn’t shatter up marriages!”)
As for Gelderlystein, best-understandn for his labor on television — he wants it to carry out on as magnificent a screen as possible after its run in Toronto. “My hope is that it gets a huge cinema free. I’m a cinema guy,” he says. “And I would cherish for it to be in cinemas so people can chuckle and cry together.”
